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There is still plenty of gold in Fergus county's mountains, according to E. B. "Hardrock"
Coolidge, who is exceedingly well qualified to discuss the subject.
"There is no question in my mind that in the years to come many properties in the Judith and
North Moccasin mountains will be operated at a profit, the old prospector, who took hundreds
of thousands of dollars worth of gold out of them, told the Lewistown Daily News recently. He
is in the oil business now and lives In Great Falls. Coolidge one ofthe developers of the historic
old Spotted Horse mine in the Judiths near Maiden wrote the following interesting history of
that property for the Daily News:
The Spotted Horse mine was discovered in 1880 by "Skookum" Joe, a half breed Indian. He
shipped a considerable amount of high grade ore at that time from the old discovery shaft. My
understanding is that the mine was then sold to Patrick McAdow for $5,500. He was a paralytic
and confined to a wheel chair, but assayed the ore from the mine with a horn spoon. His wife,
who was a very active individual, took charge of the mining operations and built a ten stamp
mill on the property and recovered somewhere in the neighborhood of a million dollars. The
property was then sold to another outfit for $300,000. They operated the property for some
time but without financial success, so it was taken over by McAdow again who resumed
operations with his stamp mill and took out another million dollars or so.
The property changed hands a couple of times after that and finally was purchased by the St.
Paul Montana Mining company consisting of four men, namely Oscar L. Taylor, Charley Ames
and Lucius Ordway, all of St. Paul, and Dr. Shiftman of Pasadena, Calif., These four men went to
Cornell together and bought three properties in the Judith mountains-Whiskey Gulch, the
New Year and the Spotted Horse was thrown in to close the deal. A mill was built at Whiskey
Gulch and considerable ore was recovered. A second mill was built at the New Year mine, but
very little ore was recovered, and the operation of this mill might be considered a total loss. By
this time these gentlemen were fed up on mining and did nothing with the Spotted Horse. Jim
Breem of Butte, obtained an option on it in 1909 and after a thorough sampling, turned the
property down.
It was leased by the writer in 1910, who took in four other partners-Pete Nelson, Oscar
Johnson, John Lockovitch and George Wieglenda, and we operated the property for a year or so
under a lease. During this period we shipped $110,000 thousand dollars worth of ore and
netted ourselves around $36,000. During the next two years the property was operated by
Frank Bryant and, the writer and after the lease expired, the original company took over and
refunded the royalties that had been paid them amounting to something over $50,000, to build
a mill, which was operated for two or three years. This operation was carried on until the fall of
1919 and was closed due to the fact that gold remained at the normal price of $20.67 an ounce,
while labor jumped from $3.50 to $6.00 a day; coal rose from $2.50 to $6.00 a ton; cyanide
from 27c a pound to $1.50 a pound and zinc from 9 cents a pound to 28 cents a pound. This
made the operation of a mill uneconomical and the high grade ore was running out.
Plans were then made to deepen the shaft with an expenditure of $50,000. There were six
distinct ore chutes on the property and all contained shipping ore that could be sorted from the
main chute. At the time we were about ready to make final arrangements for the deepening of

There is still plenty of gold in Fergus county's mountains, according to E. B. "Hardrock" Coolidge, who is exceedingly well qualified to discuss the subject.
"There is no question in my mind that in the years to come many properties in the Judith and North Moccasin mountains will be operated at a profit, the old prospector, who took hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gold out of them, told the Lewistown Daily News recently. He is in the oil business now and lives In Great Falls.
Coolidge one of the developers of the historic old Spotted Horse mine in the Judiths near Maiden wrote the following interesting history of that property for the Daily News:
The Spotted Horse mine was discovered in 1880 by "Skookum" Joe, a half breed Indian. He shipped a considerable amount of high grade ore at that time from the old discovery shaft. My understanding is that the mine was then sold to Partric [Perry] McAdow for $5,500. He was a paralytic and confined to a wheel chair, but assayed the ore from the mine with a horn spoon. His wife, who was a very active individual, took charge of the mining operations and built a ten stamp mill on the property and recovered somewhere in the neighborhood of a million dollars. The property was then sold to another outfit for $300,000. They operated the property for some time but without financial success, so it was taken over by McAdow again who resumed operations with his stamp mill and took out another million dollars or so.
The property changed hands a couple of times after that and finally was purchased by the St. Paul Montana Mining company consisting of four men, namely Oscar L. Taylor, Charley Ames and Lucius Ordway, all of St. Paul, and Dr. Shiftman of Pasadena, Calif., These four men went to Cornell together and bought three properties in the Judith mountains—Whiskey Gulch, the New Year and the Spotted Horse was thrown in to close the deal. A mill was built at Whiskey Gulch and considerable ore was recovered. A second mill was built at the New Year mine, but very little ore was recovered, and the operation of this mill might be considered a total loss. By this time these gentlemen were fed up on mining and did nothing with the Spotted Horse. Jim Breem of Butte, obtained an option on it in 1909 and after a thorough sampling, turned the property down.
It was leased by the writer in 1910, who took in four other partners—Pete Nelson, Oscar Johnson, John Lockovitch and George Wieglenda, and we operated the property for a year or so under a lease. During this period we shipped $110,000 thousand dollars worth of ore and netted ourselves around $36,000. During the next two years the property was operated by Frank Bryant and, the writer and after the lease expired, the original company took over and refunded the royalties that had been paid them amounting to something over $50,000, to build a mill, which was operated for two or three years. This operation was carried on until the fall of 1919 and was closed due to the fact that gold remained at the normal price of $20.67 an ounce, while labor jumped from $3.50 to $6.00 a day; coal rose from $2.50 to $6.00 a ton; cyanide from 27c a pound to $1.50 a pound and zinc from 9 cents a pound to 28 cents a pound. This made the operation of a mill uneconomical and the high grade ore was running out.
Plans were then made to deepen the shaft with an expenditure of $50,000. There were six distinct ore chutes on the property and all contained shipping ore that could be sorted from the main chute. At the time we were about ready to make final arrangements for the deepening of the shaft, Mr. Taylor, who was president, died, and the rest of the men lost interest in the venture. Three months later, Charley Adams, the vice president, died.
This happened in 1919 at which time the Frantz corporation drilled in an oil well in what is now known as the Cat Creek field. Admitting that I knew nothing of the oil business, did have some knowledge of mining law and placer mining claims were filed on government lands to secure ownership and title. Congress passed a bill on February 25, 1920, eliminating the placer mining law from the oil lands and substituting a lease program, which gave the preference right of a lease for oil and gas to the homesteader or the man who filed on the grounds for agricultural purposes. After spending a day in Cat Creek and looking over the well, decided to abandon the mining business and go into the oil business and might add that I have spent 27 years in the oil game and can say that I, together with LaRue Smith, who is still my partner, are the two oldest continuous producers of crude oil in the state of Montana, never having missed a monthly check for the sale of crude oil since January, 1921.
I still believe the old Spotted Horse mine has great possibilities as during the ten years I was there, 25,000 tons of ore was shipped to the smelting works and netted $101 a ton, besides the gold and silver that was recovered through the operation of the mill. The largest carload shipped during my time average $180 a ton, although I assayed one sample that averaged $70,000 per ton, or $35 dollars a pound. From this ore chute, 30 feet from the grass roots, at the collar of the old discovery shaft, we took out a little stope of ore which was about 30 feet wide, 25 feet deep and about four feet from the floor to the back of the stope. This pocket netted us around $60,000. This should give the reader interested in mining in Fergus county, the possibilities that exist in extracting high grade ore.
There is no question in my mind that in the years to come many properties in the Judith and North Moccasin mountains will be operated at a profit.

There is still plenty of gold in Fergus county's mountains, according to E. B. "Hardrock"
Coolidge, who is exceedingly well qualified to discuss the subject.
"There is no question in my mind that in the years to come many properties in the Judith and
North Moccasin mountains will be operated at a profit, the old prospector, who took hundreds
of thousands of dollars worth of gold out of them, told the Lewistown Daily News recently. He
is in the oil business now and lives In Great Falls. Coolidge one ofthe developers of the historic
old Spotted Horse mine in the Judiths near Maiden wrote the following interesting history of
that property for the Daily News:
The Spotted Horse mine was discovered in 1880 by "Skookum" Joe, a half breed Indian. He
shipped a considerable amount of high grade ore at that time from the old discovery shaft. My
understanding is that the mine was then sold to Patrick McAdow for $5,500. He was a paralytic
and confined to a wheel chair, but assayed the ore from the mine with a horn spoon. His wife,
who was a very active individual, took charge of the mining operations and built a ten stamp
mill on the property and recovered somewhere in the neighborhood of a million dollars. The
property was then sold to another outfit for $300,000. They operated the property for some
time but without financial success, so it was taken over by McAdow again who resumed
operations with his stamp mill and took out another million dollars or so.
The property changed hands a couple of times after that and finally was purchased by the St.
Paul Montana Mining company consisting of four men, namely Oscar L. Taylor, Charley Ames
and Lucius Ordway, all of St. Paul, and Dr. Shiftman of Pasadena, Calif., These four men went to
Cornell together and bought three properties in the Judith mountains-Whiskey Gulch, the
New Year and the Spotted Horse was thrown in to close the deal. A mill was built at Whiskey
Gulch and considerable ore was recovered. A second mill was built at the New Year mine, but
very little ore was recovered, and the operation of this mill might be considered a total loss. By
this time these gentlemen were fed up on mining and did nothing with the Spotted Horse. Jim
Breem of Butte, obtained an option on it in 1909 and after a thorough sampling, turned the
property down.
It was leased by the writer in 1910, who took in four other partners-Pete Nelson, Oscar
Johnson, John Lockovitch and George Wieglenda, and we operated the property for a year or so
under a lease. During this period we shipped $110,000 thousand dollars worth of ore and
netted ourselves around $36,000. During the next two years the property was operated by
Frank Bryant and, the writer and after the lease expired, the original company took over and
refunded the royalties that had been paid them amounting to something over $50,000, to build
a mill, which was operated for two or three years. This operation was carried on until the fall of
1919 and was closed due to the fact that gold remained at the normal price of $20.67 an ounce,
while labor jumped from $3.50 to $6.00 a day; coal rose from $2.50 to $6.00 a ton; cyanide
from 27c a pound to $1.50 a pound and zinc from 9 cents a pound to 28 cents a pound. This
made the operation of a mill uneconomical and the high grade ore was running out.
Plans were then made to deepen the shaft with an expenditure of $50,000. There were six
distinct ore chutes on the property and all contained shipping ore that could be sorted from the
main chute. At the time we were about ready to make final arrangements for the deepening of